Botnets, extortion, spyware, Trojans

Spotty news out of Holland today that three hackers that controlled a botnet of over 100K nodes have been arrested.

Note:

1. Police confiscated a sports car. When you are looking for evidence that cyber crime pays. Look in the parking lot of the criminals. Of course, it only pays until you get caught! Hmmm, authorities in Eastern European nations should just track imports of Cadilac Escalades to find cyber-criminals.

2. These hackers attempted to attack a US based organization. Which one???? This is so important to know. Was NASDAQ under attack? Or just a third tier credit card processor?

3. The hackers are suspected of installing key stroke loggers to capture account info. They were farming every possible revenue stream.

Question: What happens to a botnet after the authorities intervene? Do they control it and push out/install updates? Do they leave it headless but open to the next band of hackers? In other words - is arresting botherds having any impact or does it just clear the way for criminals that are better at hiding from authorities?